ISLAMBAD: India’s decision to derail the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit effectively contradicts Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to fight against poverty in the region, said the Foreign Office (FO) on Friday.

“India’s decision to abstain from the summit on the basis of unfounded assumptions on the Uri incident is a futile effort to divert attention of the world from the atrocities perpetrated by India in occupied Kashmir,” said Nafees Zakaria, spokesperson for the FO.